Warehouse picking requires a user (i.e. a picker) to travel to a number of discrete locations to collect (i.e. “pick”) items and complete a “pick task”. Information on the pick locations and items can be presented at a display in single text lines for each pick or a text list of upcoming picks can be given. However, such methods of presenting pick information prevent the PICKER from optimizing their pick efficiency and still rely on various levels of cognitive load based on a picker's experience, for example knowledge of locations of item in a warehouse. Given how demanding the tasks of a picker can be, with often more than one hundred picks occurring in an hour, and given the high turnover rate of pickers, as well as the high usage of seasonal workers in warehouses, warehouse inefficiencies in picking can be considerable.
Such inefficiencies can include: pick carts not being optimally placed between close picks to reduce wasted travel time; and pickers spending cognitive load on determining if the pick is on a left or right side of an aisle and/or decoding the location code in other ways (e.g. shelf height). In addition, item placement in bins/totes/cart shelves/palette may be inefficient due to the picker not knowing what the next pick is (perhaps a large item is located in a in a top of a tote when it should not be). Hence, especially novice pickers may get confused trying to figure out the layout of the warehouse and/or locations of items therein Indeed, order picking often consumes a large part of total labor operations in a warehouse, for example up to 10%.
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.